Finding that he was caught, the fellow rose up and coolly said: “Well, you don’t scare worth a cent!” In his hand the man held the bulls-eye lantern which he had been flashing in the face of the electrician, and he owned to having a confederate somewhere on the level who was similarly equipped, but refused to give his name.
The mysterious signals from the level were now accounted for. This man and two or three other mischievous fellows, who were the only men employed in that part of the mine, had been ringing themselves up and down between the almost deserted levels, and had been frightening out of their wits all who ventured near the haunted 700-foot level. Since the day of the electrician’s adventure nothing more has been heard of the Ophir ghost.
CHAPTER XLVI.
EXTRACTING SILVER FROM THE ORE.
Having shown the reader what is to be seen in the underground regions of the mines, I shall now proceed to show him what is to be seen in a quartz-mill, explaining the use of the machinery and various processes for the extraction of the silver from the ore. I shall begin with the ore as it comes from the mine, and follow it through the reduction-works until it makes its appearance in the shape of silver bars, stamped with their value, and ready for the mint or the market.
The mills in which the ores of the Comstock lode are reduced, are all built on the same general plan. When the tourist has visited and examined one mill, he has seen them all, both great and small, so far as regards the processes in use for the reduction of the ore. Some mills are more conveniently arranged than others, however, and while in some machinery is used which is somewhat behind the age, in others will be found in operation in every department machinery of the latest and most approved pattern.
The model mill of the State, and of the world, for the reduction of silver ore, is the new 60-stamp mill of the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company. In this mill is to be found all that is valuable in any mill, and much in the way of machinery that can be seen in no other works of the kind.
LOADING SILVER ORE—CONSOLIDATED VIRGINIA MILLS.
In describing a quartz-mill, and the processes used in working the ores of the Comstock mines, I shall, therefore, select the Consolidated Virginia reduction-works as those through which to conduct the reader. The Consolidated Virginia mill stands about 200 feet north-east of the company’s main shaft and hoisting-works. The ground was well chosen, there being a considerable incline toward the east, which allowed of a proper and regular descent from the battery-room on the west to the room containing the agitators on the east, so that the course of everything is downward, from the time of dumping the ore into the chutes at the top of the mill. The ground was graded out in regular terraces of the proper size for the several departments, as the initial step, and in their proper order were reared upon these, foundations for the various kinds of machinery, and the whole covered by one immense building or series of buildings, principally under one roof—a vast aggregation of buildings and machinery.